Female Genital Mutilation is Now Illegal in D.C.

By: Miriam Edelman

As of April 18, 2025, D.C. has its first specific law against female genital mutilation (FGM). On April 13, 2023, D.C. Councilmember Brooke Pinto introduced B25-0247 - Female Genital Mutilation Prohibition Act of 2023. Councilmembers Matthew Frumin, Christina Henderson, Brianne Nadeau, Charles Allen, and Vincent Gray co-introduced the bill. As introduced, the bill “would prohibit female genital mutilation of a person under care, and expand mandated reporter reporting requirements to include female genital mutilation.  It would also provide for a civil action for female genital mutilation.”

Pinto wrote a letter on April 13, 2023, re-introducing the bill. Highlights of the letter are:

-          “Tragically, this practice [FGM/C] occurs across the United States, including in the District. The CDC estimates that as many as 500,000 girls and women in the United States have undergone FGM/C in the past or are at risk—a number that has tripled over the last two decades. The CDC estimate includes more than 51,000 women in the Washington metro area, the second highest rate in the country after the New York metro area.”

-          “Laws prohibiting FGM/C help ensure that no woman is subjected to female genital mutilation, whether in their home country or abroad. To date, more than half of states have passed laws specifically prohibiting FGM/C, with many explicitly prohibiting the removal of a person from the state for this purpose. 6 Unfortunately, the District is one of only ten states that have not adopted any specific law regulating or prohibiting this practice. What’s more, since all of the District’s neighboring jurisdictions have passed laws explicitly banning FGM/C, women and girls may be brought to the District for this practice.”

-          “This legislation would broadly prohibit the practice of female genital mutilation and cutting in the District, including prohibiting a parent, guardian, or conservator from removing a person under their care from the District for the purpose of facilitating FGM/C abroad. The bill also establishes a cause of action for violation of the Act, expands existing mandating reporter requirements to include suspicion that a person is at imminent risk of being subjected to FGM/C, and requires that DC Health develop educational training and materials for community members and mandated reporters on the harms associated with female genital mutilation and cutting and how to recognize the signs that a person might be at risk.”

-          “This legislation will bring the District in line with a number of other jurisdictions, including both Maryland and Virginia, that have acted to prohibit FGM/C. Importantly, it will set in place a number of safeguards that, taken together, will help ensure that the more than 51,000 girls and women in the District at risk of FGM/C are protected from this harmful practice.”

D.C.’s government passed B25-0247. On June 27, 2023, the Council’s Committee on the Judiciary and Public Safety, which Pinto chairs, held a hearing on the bill. Advocates testified in support of B25-0247. For example, Angela Peabody, Executive Director of Global Woman P.E.A.C.E. Foundation shared the following frightening story:

Prior to the passage of the law in Virginia, an East African in Virginia was chasing his daughter down the street with a knife, attempting to perform FGM on her. A woman from [sic.] and her daughter shielded the girl from the father and called the police. When the Fairfax Police arrived, they did not know anything about FGM. Because the woman had attended a presentation on FGM a few years earlier that I had hosted, she was knowledgeable about FGM and understood what the girl said as she was running. However, there was not a law in Virginia at the time, the father was arrested for attempted malicious wounding, and was later released.

At the Committee’s mark-up on July 2, 2024, the committee unanimously passed B25-0247. On July 9, 2024, and then on September 17, 2024, the D.C. Council passed the bill, 12-0; Gray was absent both times. On September 23, 2024, the bill was transmitted to D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser. On October 7, 2024, Bowser signed the bill, turning it into A25-0559.  On January 23, 2025, the legislation was transmitted to Congress.

At least some Members of Congress oppose FGM. In 2021, H.R. 6100 - STOP FGM Act of 2020 became federal law. The law revised “the federal criminal statute that prohibits certain conduct often referred to as female genital mutilation (FGM);” increased “increased from 5 to 10 years the statutory maximum prison term for an FGM offense;” prohibited “a federal criminal defendant from asserting, as a defense, that FGM is required as a matter of religion, custom, tradition, ritual, or standard practice;” and made other changes. Unlike many bills, H.R. 6100 had full bipartisan support in both Congressional chambers. On September 21, 2020, the House passed H.R. 6100 by voice vote. After the Senate passed it on December 15, 2020, by unanimous consent, President Donald Trump signed it into law on January 5, 2021.

D.C.’s new law (L25-0322) defines female genital mutilation as “any procedure performed for non-medical reasons that involves partial or total removal of, or other injury to, the external female genitalia.”           

This law protects females by making FGM illegal in the nation’s capital. This unnecessary procedure damages physical and mental health.